Forest Of Drizzling Rain
by Ferici
Summary: Shiori Kanzaki lived with her parents, and they died in an accident on her birthday. Since then, she had been hearing a strange voice, then one day, found a connection from her family of three, with her grandfather. She went to the home village, but she is about to uncover the mystery that has always fogged up her past.


_Ah. Hello. I suppose you are here to hear a story of mine, right?_ _Well then, this is a very interesting story about a girl who made two promises, but eventually forgotten both. But, I'm getting too ahead of myself. Lets get on with the story, okay?_

_Drip, drip, drip, drip. _There, sitting on the floor with all black, is a girl who just entered university. Today is her birthday, and the house is empty, silent, and most sadly, alone. _'It happened so quickly'_ She thought. Just hours ago, her parents were going off somewhere to buy something for her birthday. But later that evening, she got the dreaded news that they had died in a traffic accident, and the only thing left of her parents was the wrapped up box that was suppose to be the present itself. _'I have to clean up.. Yeah.. I have to clean up and lock up the house.'_ After her moments just sitting on the ground and mourning, she finally began picking up the papers. There were papers on the funeral, inheritance, and other stuff, though she looked this over and put them all away on the shelf. On the shelf, there was a small key to the photo album which she picked up to open. She flipped through the book, and found many happy memories. However, there were no photos from when she was a child, which seemed to sadden her, slightly. Now that the papers were dealt with, it was time to lock up downstairs. She walked down the staircase in the darkened house, towards the door, and locked it shut. She was about to go to the kitchen/dining room to lock the window until she stopped once she entered. There, on the table, were all of her favorite dishes, a birthday cake, and decorations saying _'Happy Birthday, Shiori!' _It was saddening, it was lonely, and it was quiet. '_If I don't clean this up by tomorrow..'_ She thought to herself, but she couldn't bring herself to clean up the food, not just yet. She left the silent kitchen without a second thought, and walked back up the stairs to her room. Each noise she made seemed to be louder than they used to be, with her the only one in that house. The sound of the clock ticked, ticked, ticked, and stopped before she could open the door to her bedroom. Back to the office she went, just to check on the clock. It was frozen, and it wouldn't make the slightest sound. She at least wanted to fix it, and so she tried for a couple minutes. Nothing happened, and nothing seemed wrong with it either. "I guess it's fine like this.." Her gentle and soft voice echoed in the empty room, and she finally returned to her room to sleep.

She crawled into the bed, and she had the most strange dream.. As if someone were calling out to her. _"Come come come, my sweet, sweet child."_ The voice did not stop, and spoke about a promise.. A promise that Shiori did not remember. She was suddenly awoken by the ringing of the clock, which was odd for this time, considering the fact that it was silent just a few hours ago. Softly sitting up on the bed and going back to the office, she began to try to fix the clock once more time. It took a while, but once it stopped, a piece of paper that was stuck in it fell out of the black of the clock. The girl picked up the crumpled paper and straightened it out, only to find a photo of her, her mother, and her father with another man whom she did not know. On the back of the photo in her mother's handwriting, she read out loud. "19XX XX XX. Shiori, Myself, Kenji, Kenji's Father." She finished, but with shock on her face. She had a grandfather, but how come she didn't remember him? A smile found it's way to her face, and she put the photo into the album for safe keeping.

On the summer break, Shiori was alone, again. She thought that it would most likely be yet, another quiet summer, but that was until she remembered about the photo. It had an address on it, Azakawa Village, was it? She had to take many trains to get there, and then she finally had to take a bus for the rest of the way. She walked up to the worn out bus stop... Only to find that the next bus will arrive in 3 hours. The only thing she could do, was to wait on the bench. She waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, but the bus never came, and it was already late evening. She could have gone home, but that would take hours, and she doubted that she would make it before the sun rose up. After another hour or so, she heard the sirens of a police car come nearer her. "Hey! Who are you?" The voice called out, and out of the car stood a male in a patrolling uniform. He approached Shiori, tilting his head curiously. "What are you doing here so late?" He would ask, as the female in front of him would stare, dumbfolded. "Oh um.. I was waiting for the bus to go to Azakawa Village.." She replied quietly. She wasn't good with too many people in the night time, since she never seemed to feel safe at time for whatever reason. The male shook his head, and then pointed at the bus sign. "They canceled buses here a long time ago, mostly from the lack of visitors," He replied. The male soon crossed his arms, curious about what business the girl had in the village of nothingness, literally. "So, what business do you have there?" Upon hearing that question, she pulled out a picture of her family, including her grandfather. "I need to go there.. I mean.. To see my family.. Er.." She had trouble putting it into words, but the police man decided to shrug that off. "Well then, that's the museum we are talking about. Here, I can give you a lift the rest of the way. By the way, my name is Mochizuki, a pleasure to meet you." He would say in a cheerful tone, motioning her into the police car.

Finally, after so many years, she was about to uncover her family's history, the history that she never even knew about. But there was still something that bothered her.. Why did he parents try so hard for her to not find this place? That question will haunt her for quite a while.

_Come, come, come my sweet, sweet child. That's right.. You have to remember the promise, my dear baby girl... Hehehe..._


End file.
